AACN News—December 2003—People

Vol. 20, No. 12, DECEMBER 2003

Janus
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Editor's note: All that we do is rooted in
our past, and we have much to learn from the
leaders who have gone before us, paved the
way and laid the foundation. To strengthen
this connection, members of the AACN Board
of Directors have interviewed some of our
past leaders. For this month, AACN
President-elect Kathleen McCauley, RN, PhD,
CS, FAAN, interviewed Therese S. Richmond,
RN, PhD, CRNP, FAAN, a member of the AACN
Board of Directors from 1988 to 1991.
Richmond is currently associate professor of
Trauma and Critical Care Nursing and
director of the Adult Acute Care Nurse
Practitioner Program at the University of
Pennsylvania School of Nursing,
Philadelphia. She is a senior fellow of the
Leonard Davis Institute for Health Care
Economics and research director of the
Firearm Injury Center at Penn.

McCauley: What
you are doing now, particularly as it
relates to critical care nursing?Richmond: In my
current position, I direct world-class,
adult acute care masters programs that
encompass the acute care nurse practitioner
and clinical nurse specialist roles. I"m
committed to preparing the next generation
of advanced practice nurses who will care
for our most vulnerable patients. Given the
shortage of nurses and escalating patient
acuity, this is a critical time to prepare
nurses who not only have a clear nursing
focus, but also can take on tasks and roles
that are new to their scopes of practice.

In addition to
teaching and research, my full faculty role
as a clinician educator requires a practice
component. My clinical practice is in the
Division of Traumatology and Surgical
Critical Care. It"s a place where I have
meaningful clinical involvement that
directly relates to my academic role, drives
my research agenda and informs my teaching.
It is all integrated and just fabulous.

McCauley: What
is your research focus?Richmond: An
area of research that I have been committed
to for decades focuses on how we can best
help patients recover after serious injury.
My interest stemmed from listening to my
critically injured patients when they said,
�You cured me and sent me home, but I"m not
healed.� I am the principal investigator on
an interdisciplinary team conducting a study
funded by the National Institute of Mental
Health to examine depression and other
psychological disorders that follow injury
and their effects on disability and quality
of life. I am interested in the recovery
piece where nurses make a difference.

The other part
of my research, after 25 years of caring for
the traumatically injured, is to determine
how we can stop these injuries from
happening. As critical care nurses, we have
a responsibility to do that. I work in
partnership with a trauma surgeon, C.
William Schwab, to codirect the Firearm
Injury Center at Penn. We have effectively
pulled together a highly interdisciplinary
group of researchers and clinicians to
tackle how we can prevent firearm injuries.

McCauley: Have
you continued your involvement in AACN?Richmond:
Absolutely! Once you are a member of the
board, you are always involved. I"ve served
on the national Research Committee and, at
the 2002 NTI, I was the CCRN luncheon
speaker. That was fun! I"m also a member of
the Speakers Bureau, part of AACN"s Voice
initiative to speak out on issues important
to our organization and our practice.

McCauley: How
has your AACN leadership role influenced
you?Richmond: From
AACN, I learned that if you have a vision,
you can garner resources, and if you are
willing to work with others, you can change
the world. I absolutely believe that. While
a member of the board, I learned what
leadership really is. Now I am willing to
take thoughtful risks, to go to places that
are new to me.Part of being a
leader is saying, �I can make a difference.
I"m willing to make a difference.� I realize
that, at times, there is a risk in making a
difference, but I am now willing to take
that risk. People aren"t born leaders. They
learn to be leaders by having opportunities
to work with other leaders, to grow that
skill set, by practicing. I was a very
different person when I left the board than
when I joined it.

McCauley: What
was the most challenging and rewarding
aspect of your role on the board?Richmond:
Defending my PhD proposal and dissertation
could not touch my experience in being the
board liaison when AACN established the
Ethics Committee. I worked with a fabulous
group of nurse experts, and it was my role
to bring and to defend why the board should
accept newly developed position statements.
At the time, these were really hot ethical
issues, and AACN was new at taking such
positions in such controversial areas.

McCauley: What
is the most lasting aspect of your
experience in this role?Richmond: I now
know critical care nurses all over the
country. I can call people and pick their
brains about issues I am struggling with in
my own practice. It is a wonderful network.
I"ve been exposed to wonderful critical care
nurses who are so passionate about patient
care. It absolutely makes me believe in the
value and the power of nursing.

Members on
the Move

HonorsKathleen A.
Dracup, RN, DNSc, professor and dean of the
University of California, San Francisco,
School of Nursing, recently received the
Eugene Braunwald Academic Mentorship Award,
one of the highest honors presented by the
American Heart Association. The award is
presented annually to honor an individual
whose academic career includes a long-term
record of successful mentoring of promising
young academicians. The award included a
$1,000 honorarium and a citation, which
lauded Dracup as �a source of incomparable
personal and professional enrichment� for
the many students who have benefited from
her attentive counseling. �And vast numbers
of patients become, in turn, the
all-important additional beneficiaries of
these graduates" dedication to providing
optimal care.� Dracup, who formerly was on
the faculty of the University of California
at Los Angeles School of Nursing for 25
years, is co-editor of the American Journal
of Critical Care.

Elaine Austin,
RN, MSN, CNS, was chosen as Nurse of the
Year for the southeastern section of the
United States by Nursing Spectrum magazine.
She is with the Peri-Operative Services at
Methodist Lebonheur Healthcare, Memphis,
Tenn.

Beth Hammer, RN,
MSN, APNP, was chosen by Nurseweek to
receive a Nursing Excellence Award for
Midwest/Great Lakes and Midwest/Heartland.
Hammer, who is the AACN Chapter Advisory
Team representative for Region 8, is a nurse
practitioner at Clement J. Zablocki VA
Medical Center in Milwaukee, Wis.

Professional

Gladys M.
Campbell, RN, MSN, has assumed the position
of the chief nursing officer and assistant
administrator for Patient Care Services at
Providence Saint Vincent"s Medical Center in
Portland, Ore. A past president of AACN, she
was previously employed by the Saint Thomas
Health Services in Nashville, Tenn., where
she was the executive director of the
Research Institute.

Randy Bauler,
AACN exhibits and sponsorship director, has
been elected to a three-year term on the
board of directors of the International
Association for Exhibition Management.
Bauler was also selected to receive the IAEM
Merit Award for 2003, in recognition of his
outstanding achievement, dedication and
contribution to the association and the
exhibition industry.